Dark Star Orchestra

Following a tour-ending, Memorial Day celebration at the 6th annual Dark Star Jubilee festival at Legend Valley in Thornville, Ohio May 26 - 28, Dark Star Orchestra Summer Tour 2017 gets underway June 24-25 in Aurora, IL and winds all around the Midwest and East Coast. Additional shows still to be added in the coming weeks.

One day in 1997, two Deadhead musicians were ruminating about life without Jerry Garcia and simultaneously came up with the same idea: "Let's recreate a Grateful Dead show." Around forty people came down to Martyrs' in Chicago on November 11, 1997, to hear the brand-new Dark Star Orchestra's rendition of the Dead's show of 10/8/81. They'd planned it as a four-week experiment, ninety folks showed up the second week, then two hundred, then a 400-person sell-out, so it seemed like a good idea to keep going.

No stranger to the music of the Dead, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti - of Dead and Company, and formerly of Furthur, RatDog, The Dead, and The Other Ones - joins Dark Star Orchestra November 18 at College Street Music Hall in New Haven, CT and November 19 at The Palace Theatre in Albany, NY. DSO bassist Skip Vangelis is unavailable for these dates, so keyboardist Rob Barraco will pivot to fill in on bass while Chimenti, who joined DSO in 2012 and 2014 for similarly brief sit-in

I had the privilege of attending my favorite festival of the year for the fifth year in a row, and I am here to tell you of the best place on Earth. I would travel across several oceans to get to this festival. It is one that if you haven’t experienced, it should definitely be placed on your bucket list. I’d like to start this tale of Dark Star Jubilee, held at Legend Valley, in Thornville Ohio, each Memorial Day weekend, with some words from the band, written in each schedule passed out:

The first night of this three-night Dark Star Orchestra run at the Boulder Theater was powerful, exciting, and fun. They played the first night of Red Rocks 1978, which was on August 30th, and it featured the first time ever played “’I Need a Miracle,” “Stagger Lee,” and “If I Had the World to Give.” Many of the patrons of the Boulder Theater were extremely happy as the buzz went around the venue of which show it was.

Imagine a paradise that contained all of your family, friends, and favorite music. A place that feels like home as soon as you walk in and everyone is considered family. A place where a smile never leaves your face and the music never stops playing. Imagine no further, I’m here to tell you of such a place! Join me at the Dark Star Jubilee for its fifth year at Legend Valley in Thornville, Ohio. It is just over a month away and is held May 27th-29th.